According to Phoenix police, Father Kenneth Walker was killed by a gun owned by Father Joseph Terra. Investigators say Terra was attacked after opening the kitchen door at the Mother of Mercy Mission in downtown Phoenix. He told police he went to get a handgun he kept in the nightstand next to his bed. He said that an injured finger kept him from firing at the intruder, whom police identify as Gary Michael Moran. In the struggle, Moran is accused of getting the gun away from Father Terra and shooting Father Walker.

The two priests operated in a tough part of town.

And priests have as much right to protect themselves as anyone else.

But does it seem incongruous for a priest to have a gun?

A caller who left a voicemail on my phone Monday afternoon said that an armed priest doesn't quite match up with Matthew 26:52, in which Jesus says, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword."

Times have changed. And I've read that the church has no overarching policy on priests and weapons. Nor does the Phoenix Diocese.

Still, the former altar boy in me can't imagine any of the priests I met as a kid carrying a weapon.

Passing through our parish once was a priest who was said to have served as a battlefield chaplain during World War II. When asked if he was afraid to be in unarmed in a war zone he laughed and said, "I wasn't unarmed."